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Deer #’s down statewide???

Sligh1

Sligh1

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This is beyond anectodal. I ask hunters DAILY “what’s deer #’s like?” Across the state…. I would say I’ve had discussions or feedback with someone in almost every county. Countless people in southern tier.
Over the whole state…. I’m hearing it’s unanimously down. Some areas “awful”. Some “it’s down a good bit”. Whatever. SE might have the least concern as they have historically had the Highest density pockets but I’m hearing challenges even there.

Thoughts? Are your deer #’s down? If so, what gut reasons come to mind??

1) I am absolutely certain ehd has hit about every pocket of this state. Even if the guy 5 miles away loses deer & u don’t…. Deer will disperse. It will impact you. EHD a GIANT issue, no doubt about it. *I personally can’t say for sure but I don’t believe cwd is part of the population decreases. A lot of reasons I say that…. Clearly cant rule it out but I personally don’t believe it’s any relation.

2) Coyote predation of fawns, rutted deer & even healthy adults. I’ve seen packs take down countless mature deer. I’ve said that before. Think there’s far more on landscape than ever before. Epidemic levels & super high densities. Like I’ve expressed before.

3) there’s SOMETHING else!!! ?!?!?! ______. ????? I don’t believe it’s cwd. Rob had mentioned enlist beans…. It is “new”. Round up & seed treatment are not new so discussing what has changed. He also mentioned covid in deer. It could be another virus or a some other sickness. I suspect it’s something like that. This is one we need some thoughts & feedback on. At this rate, IMO- I believe there will be some investigation into what else might be going on. It’s SOMETHING!!! Thoughts?

Are your #’s down? How much are they down? When did it start going down badly? What do u think it is? Any other details - fire away! If you see no changes or more deer- fire that up too. Any info & feedback- GO!!!
 
We had ehd terrible last year. Numbers were horrible. This year it is better than last year but down from 2 years ago. Found about 20 dead ones last year. Only 4 this year so hopefully it keeps getting better again. Before late last summer our numbers were the best they had been in a long time.
 
Straight up ehd this year for us in my tiny part of Illinois. Farm chemicals have been around forever throughout all the greatest boom years of the whitetail. We have coyotes, cwd, snipers, modern technologies in hunting...and yet we still had the worst crop damage from deer in the past dozen years. Then ehd struck this year. Guessing we're down 75-85% in numbers.
 
Numbers are for sure way down but at least it seems better than last year. I've walked cricks, checked ponds a couple times the last two years and only found a couple. But I do believe that's the main issue. Deer in my area dispersing to harder hit EHD areas as you said as well. Maybe they have died here, I just didn't find them.

Coyotes are a problem but they're impossible to stay on top of and always have been. It's my understanding that trying to control their populations is a losing battle because they self regulate their population. If there is ample food, they'll have more pups.

Non-hunters still think there are deer everywhere because they "about hit one every week on the road!"

Farmers think they're thick because of crop damage that I'd argue is coon damage as much or more often than deer. I see more coons than deer anymore.

I could go on about all the little things i think are contributing but I'm on the phone and it takes forever to type out. I hope shotgun hunters use some discretion in a couple weeks. But I don't have high hopes. Because the deer are thick ya know. Gotta manage the numbers because they're out of hand!
 
I would really encourage hunters to have respectful conversations with other, perhaps more casual hunters, that may not know what is going on about limiting or even eliminating their doe harvest this year where appropriate.

Regulations are inherently too slow to react. It's in our hands.

On the issue of numbers I do feel its somthing beyond EHD. Lots of crazy thoughts thrown at wall there. Nearly all of them gonna be wrong, but I do feel we missing somthing beyond EHD.
 
I am in an area that we havent "assumed" we have had EHD, but numbers are for sure down- and I didnt hunt last year. I know coyotes are thicker, but we have a ton of night hunters in the area anymore. Not sure if they are truly coyote hunting or shooting deer- you can only hope they are honest. Last night was the most I have seen this year at my place, and that was 17 total, used to be 50+ would work through. I am in a buck only first shotgun area, but its amazing to me how many does still get shot because people "have the tags". We want 2 more for the freezer- but I cringe thinking about it.
Talking to the neighbors, last year the MN guys shot 4 bucks and 2 does, the next neighbor up shot 4 does to fill tags at the end of the year, and my other neighbor, his kids wounded and never recovered 5 with the floating youth tags- Thats possibly 11 that were killed within 3/4 of a mile from my place- and thats just what I am aware of. It adds up fast. I do think it still comes down to, what Skip says all the time, habitat! You confine deer to one creek bottom or river bottom, you only have hunters there, of course numbers are going to go down and go down fast.
 
Coyotes are definitely a problem ! I’m seeing mange in my area of Iowa, I hope it wipes a bunch out…
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IowaBowHunter1983 said:
I would really encourage hunters to have respectful conversations with other, perhaps more casual hunters, that may not know what is going on about limiting or even eliminating their doe harvest this year where appropriate.

Regulations are inherently too slow to react. It's in our hands.

On the issue of numbers I do feel its somthing beyond EHD. Lots of crazy thoughts thrown at wall there. Nearly all of them gonna be wrong, but I do feel we missing somthing beyond EHD.
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U read my mind!!!! I was gonna do a quick 30 second video & post it on social media on this topic. Get it to the casual hunters on thinking a little harder about laying off on the killing or paying closer attention to #’s. Instead of shooting 10 does, maybe a group cuts it in half (or none) in areas that are noticeably down.
 
Interesting topic because numbers in MO have been steadily increasing over the last 5 years. MDC is beside themselves right now..

CWD positives magically appearing where multiple insurance claims for crop damage are happening.

Quite the coincidence if you ask me..
 
I hunt 3 different properties, 4 if you count the urban city park I hunt.

2 are in central IA. One property is pretty dang slow. It used to be loaded when I started hunting. Its only about 10 acres, I should say the section/area use to be loaded. Urban sprawl has no doubt impacted it, but its been very low #'s the past few years.
The other property still has decent #'s, enough to make it exciting, but no doubt was much lower #'s this year. I I found 1 dead in the small creek that flows through it after reading from multiple people and a trusted source that ehd in the area of the county was really bad this summer/fall. I had a couple decent hunts with good #'s, but overall it was disappointing. Seeing sometimes 20 deer throughout a morning in the timber was expected, this year maybe at best only saw half that in a morning at best.

3rd property south central IA. I know ehd hit it late last fall. My cams last fall come mid november really slowed down and then last winter found 7 or 8 along the creek that meanders through the back 40 acres. I know the neighbor to the south found 2 along his part of the creek. Cams this year were really disappointing. I bet I only had 1/3 to 1/2 the number of pics compared to the last couple years before the ehd hit later last fall. Several sits were pretty slow with only seeing a couple deer. Still seeing deer etc, but not like the last couple years for sure. Its a real bummer. This farm is more in an ag area than cover, and habitat/brushy fence lines, water ways etc keep getting dozed out as well. Also, I've never heard as many coyotes as I day on this farm/area. Its crazy, as soon as it get to dusk I will hear different groups of yotes start sounding off in all different directions. Wouldn't surprise me if i am hearing 20+ at times. Is common to see a coyote or two during a hunt as well. I camped out one night this fall and they were up howling all night long.
 
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Bassattackr said:
Interesting topic because numbers in MO have been steadily increasing over the last 5 years. MDC is beside themselves right now..

CWD positives magically appearing where multiple insurance claims for crop damage are happening.

Quite the coincidence if you ask me..
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Here’s a few screenshots (pano) I took this past Saturday of the deer out in the field at one time. There were 5 more behind me at this time as well.

Mercer County, MO 2 miles from IA line….19 total in the pics and this is a CWD zone where I get 10 extra tags yearly.

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My numbers are up 30-40% in SE Iowa, but that may have more to do with some habitat improvement the last couple years. I have talked to a friend on the opposite side of the county that has found six or more EHD kills this fall.
 
Deer numbers down atleast 50% where I am at (Davis). Shot a buck couple weeks ago and found 3 other dead ones in sanctuary while tracking the one I shot. EHD hit us hard.
 
letemgrow said:
Here’s a few screenshots (pano) I took this past Saturday of the deer out in the field at one time. There were 5 more behind me at this time as well.

Mercer County, MO 2 miles from IA line….19 total in the pics and this is a CWD zone where I get 10 extra tags yearly.

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5e36d9b549d3439a92f63dd108ec642f.jpg

bb86440d7774fe92742a4c687608059e.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Will change once they setup bait piles and snipe the area.

If they don't get their quota from hunters, that's the next step.
 
Also in Davis County, NE corner...as late as August 1'ish last year, 2023, we were still planning on hitting does hard that fall. This was based on our own observations as well as several adjacent, trusted neighbors. By the time the season opened in October we were, mostly for the first time, seeing EHD signs and far fewer deer on cam than normal. Also, far fewer than had been present just 2 months earlier.

So, after consulting with other neighbors and re-evaluating things, we kiboshed the doe shooting plans in 2023 and ended up only shooting one buck. (We normally shoot 8-12+ deer per year, FWIW.) Given how many bucks went missing I really thought that our area would be a shed hunter's (dead heads) dream...but it strangely, really wasn't. Not for us or neighbors...where did these bucks go??

This year in the summer we thought that numbers were surprisingly strong and we envisioned shooting some does. But, as the season unfolded, we again decided against shooting does and have so far shot only one buck. It is better than last year, but still well off of the norm. WHY??? EHD is definitely a key factor, and for us, I think it explains 90%+ of our issue.

We don't see coyotes as a problem in our area, primarily because there are at least two very active, very effective hound groups that work the area pretty hard. I know that there are many thoughts about coyote hunters/hounds, etc, and for some very good reasons. But I also think it is something that can be worked with IMO.
 
I mainly hunt two properties anymore and they are vastly different.

1 - Des Moines metro urban hunt where it seems quite low. The 5 hunters in this area have killed 10+ does total in each of the last two seasons. Much of the property is covered by honeysuckle and it's taking over everything. I don't think a single doe has been killed on this place this year and I hope no more than a couple get shot. It needs a year or two to rebound.

2 - 40 acres of private ground in southern Warren - it seems like more deer than "normal". It got hit hard by EHD in 2019 so I think the numbers have gradually increased since that devastation. Our brassica foodplot is the best we've ever had and is getting hammered often by 10+ does and a couple bucks.

I run cameras on two others but don't hunt them much.

1 - south of the metro - not much cover on the property but deer numbers seem about right.

2 - Clarke county 80 acres - mainly ag and cattle pasture. This was the first time running a camera out there but I had very few deer in general.


I do think there's something else going on besides EHD. I don't have a clue what it is but something is going on. Coyote populations in all my areas don't seem any more than in previous years. Besides the urban spot, I don't think any other areas are getting hammered by hunters.
 
Southeast Iowa: Our area deer numbers antlerless/buck both down this year. Sightings/pictures/deer per hunt all less than last and prior years. I would say compared to the highs of 2005-2010 we have probably 30% of that population. Likely due to antlerless overharvest/fawn predation and EHD. Doubt cwd. I will never have any tested by DNR due to the shoot em all remedy that fixes nothing. Deer can live with CWD several years before dying. The neighbor ((group/party hunts all their wounded run on me) acts like he is doing us a favor and has all their deer tested. Wait til one shows up positive correctly or not and the DNR open up the harvest even more. He complains he can't grow big bucks anymore. See what happens then. Still locals seeing pockets of does and they, "plan to thin the doe numbers as we don't see any bucks, the sex ratio is out of balance"! They can't understand 1/3 or so of the antlerless are button bucks giving appearance of more does. They even say that will improve the genetics. Really? How? Some people have no clue.
I do think deer dispersal is becoming more of a factor as well as they move into less populated areas to fill the void.
 
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